Forget players, let’s talk about the manager

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A new football season has begun. It lies all before us. So let’s call in the
ethologist from Mars for her — many of the great ethologists are female —
considered views on the behaviour of the human animal in the context of
sport.

As it happens, one of her research students is doing her PhD thesis on the
human passion for individual sports. It is, of course, about football. If
you read about football, if you study football broadcasts, if you listen to
football conversations, it is impossible — at least for a Martian — to avoid
the conclusion that every football match